Lore and I now live full time in Stuart, Florida, right on the Atlantic
Ocean.  While its beautiful here it is also often damp and salty --
not a very good atmosphere for mechanical music pieces.

Also, while we still have an abiding interest in all things musical and
mechanical, we have always felt that, ultimately, we are custodians and
preservers rather than owners of these precious objects.  Now we feel
that it is time to put some of our most cherished pieces back out into
the collector's world -- to the next 'custodians'.

Accordingly, 17 of our rarest and best mechanical music pieces will be
in a Sotheby's "Clocks and Watches" auction in New York City on December
10, 2014.  Some of these pieces have not had a counterpart at auction
for decades and some are unique examples of a well-known and respected
maker's art.

Included are rare pieces of furniture containing weight and fusee
driven mechanical organs by Davrainville and Bolzmann, an exquisite
and extremely rare automata bird cage with music and singing and
"flying" birds, by Courvoisier, an original and monumental George Pyke
organ clock with automata, an organ spinning wheel, the only two
further examples of which are in the Music Museum of Stockholm, Sweden,
as well as music boxes and an exquisite musical Necéssaire.

A YouTube video showing 12 of these items may be seen at
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLGOzyPMQjeXUVWAO2Vx6KQLXX954OsgZ 

For further information you can also contact Daryn Schnipper at
Sotheby's, tel. 1-212-606-7184

Frank and Lore Metzger
Stuart, Florida